with which you deigned to invest me. I shall enjoy this repose in the midst of that general security which the great wisdom of your Majesty has assured to France, and to all those who have served her and love her. My gratitude for the goodness of your Majesty, my wishes for your prosperity, and that of your august family, will accompany me in that repose to my last day, and will not cease to equal the unchangeable devotedness and the profound respect with which I have the honour to be, sire, your Majesty's most humble and most obedient servant,

"MARSHAL DUC DE DALMATIE.'

In order to mark his sense of the services of this illustrious warrior, the King created him Marshal-General of France, and thus revived an honour which had been granted only twice before : once in 1660, in the case of Marshal Turenne, and afterwards in 1732, in the case of Marshal de Villars. The opposition journals endeavoured to throw ridicule upon the new creation of this dignity; but it was felt to be a titular rank to which the Duc de Dalmatie was as well entitled as any of the most famous of the military sons of France. About the same time the Duc d'Aumale, the youngest son of Louis Philippe, was appointed Governor-General of Algeria, in place of Marshal Bugeaud, Duke of Isly.

During the autumn a number of reform banquets, as they were called, were held in different parts of France, when the most violent language was held against the Ministry, which had become exceedingly unpopular in the country.

On the 28th of December, the

"Gentlemen, Peers, and Deputies,

"I am happy, on finding myself again among you, not to have any more to deplore the calamities which the high price of provisions had inflicted on our country. France has endured them with a courage that I could not behold without deep emotion. Never in such circumstances have public order and the freedom of transactions been so generally maintained. The inexhaustible zeal of private charity has seconded our common efforts. Our commerce, thanks to its prudent activity, has been but feebly affected by the crisis that has been experienced in other states. We are reaching the conclusion of those trials. Heaven has blessed the labours of the people, and abundant crops are reviving every where comfort and security. I congratulate myself on it with you.

"I reckon on your co-operation in order to bring to a conclusion the great public works which, by extending to the entire kingdom facility and regularity of communication, must open fresh sources of prosperity. At the same time that sufficient resources shall continue to be applied to that fruitful enterprise, we will all watch with scrupulous economy over the judicious employment of the public revenue, and I am confident that the receipts will cover the expenses in the ordinary budget of the State, which shall be shortly presented to you.

"A special Bill will be proposed to you for reducing the price of

salt, and diminishing the postage on letters to a degree compatible with the good state of our finances. "Bills on public instruction, prison discipline, and our customs tariffs are already submitted to your deliberations. Other Bills

on

shall be presented to you various important subjects, particularly on commercial property, mortgages, the Mont de Pieté, and the application of savings banks to fresh improvements in the condition of the working classes. It is my constant wish that my Government should labour, with your co-operation, in developing at the same time the morality and the welfare of the people.

My relations with all the Foreign Powers give me confidence that the peace of the world is secured. I hope that the progress of general civilization will be every where accomplished by a good understanding between Governments and people, without impairing internal order and the good relations between States.

"Civil war has disturbed the happiness of Switzerland.

My Government had come to an understanding with the Governments of England, Austria, Prussia, and Russia, in order to offer that neighbouring and friendly people an amicable mediation. Switzerland will, I hope, acknow ledge that respect for the rights of all; and the maintenance of the basis of the Helvetic Confederation can alone insure to her those enduring conditions of happiness and security that Europe wished to guarantee to her by treaties.

measures which must at length succeed in restoring our commercial relations on the banks of La Plata.

"The illustrious chief, who has long and gloriously commanded in Algeria, has desired to rest from his labours. I have intrusted to my beloved son, the Duc d'Aumale, the great and arduous task of governing that French land. I flatter myself that, under the direction of my Government, and thanks to the laborious courage of the generous army that surrounds him, his vigilance and devotedness will secure the tranquillity, the good administration, and prosperity of our establish

ment.

"Gentlemen, the more I advance in life, the more I dedicate with devotedness to the service of France, to the care of her interests, dignity, and happiness, all the activity and strength which God has given, and still vouchsafes me. Amidst the agitation that hostile and blind passions foment, a conviction animates and supports me, which is that we possess in the constitutional monarchy-in the union of the great powers of the State-sure means of overcoming all those obstacles, and of satisfying all interests, moral and material. Let us firmly maintain, according to the charter, social order and all its conditions. Let us guarantee, according to the charter, the public liberties and all their developments. We shall transmit unimpaired, to the generations that may come after us, the trust confided to us, and they will bless us for having founded and defended the edifice under shelter of which they will live happy and free.'

The position of the Government

at the close of the present year was any thing but satisfactory. With a considerable majority in the two Chambers, it had little or no support in the nation at large. This anomalous state of things was the result of the narrow basis of the electoral constituency, consisting of about 240,000 voters, and the enormous official patronage at the disposal of the Government. The disclosures which had taken place in the prosecution of M. Teste and his confederates, and the charges brought forward by M. de Girardin, of the sale of peerages and other honours, had profoundly affected the public mind; and a conviction was fast spreading that neither the Ministry nor the Chambers fairly reflected the opinion of the people. Besides this, the conduct of M. Guizot and his colleagues, in their foreign policy, had given deep offence to the ardent clamourers for liberty throughout France. This was the legitimate result of the Montpensier alliance. Louis Philippe, blinded by his eager desire to strengthen his family by dynastic alliances, had been willing to sacrifice the friendship of Great Britain, and thought himself compensated by the prospect of the Spanish Crown being

placed on the head of one of his grandchildren. The consequence was that he was anxious to cultivate the good-will of Austria and the other despotic Powers; and the French people fancied that they saw a determination on the part of the King and his Ministers to withhold their sympathy from the Italians in Lombardy, struggling to throw off the Austrian yoke, and to assist in crushing the progress of liberal views and institutions in the contest which had been waged in Switzerland. Independently of this, the obstinate refusal of the Ministry to bring forward any plan for electoral reform, and their opposition to the motions made by independent Deputies on this subject, gave strength to the cry that they were mere tools in the hands of the King, who, in reality, governed France, and who was bent more on the aggrandizement of his family than the progress and improvement of the institutions of the nation. The situation of the Guizot cabinet had thus become most precarious; and we shall see, in our next volume, on what a volcano it was slumbering, and what tremendous consequences followed from the explosion.

period, and then, without any intelligible reason, fall to pieces, and disappear. So much depends on back-stairs influence, and the Spanish people have so little part in the drama or farce of constitutional government that is acted at Madrid, that the politics of particular Cabinets hardly inspire any in

terest.

:

On the 21st of January the Isturitz Cabinet sustained a defeat in the election of a President of Congress. The ministerial candidate was Señor Bravo Murillo, a Moderado the Moderado party, however, put forward a candidate of their own, and succeeded in electing Señor Castro y Orozco. The Isturitz Ministry resigned; and the Queen sent for the Duc de Sotomayor, who belonged to the Moderado party. He, however, could not succeed in forming a Ministry, and gave up the attempt. Afterwards a Cabinet was got together under the auspices of Señor Castro y Orozco, as President of the Council, which continued in power for a brief period, and then was succeeded by one of which the Duc de Sotomayor was the head.

In the Senate, on the 1st of February, the Marquis de Miraflores entered into the following explanations respecting his share in the transactions connected with the royal marriages, which had recently been made public in the notes of Lord Palmerston and M. Guizot.

In the first place, M. Guizot had stated that the overtures for the marriage of the Infanta with the Duc de Montpensier had originally proceeded from him, when he was President of the Council of Ministers, after the fall of the Narvaez Cabinet.

But

He declared that the statement thus made by M. Guizot was most inexact. No overtures had ever been made by him. He had informed M. Bresson, when speaking to him on the subject of the Trapani marriage, that such an alliance was quite out of the question; in fact, that it was impossible, and, in the course of a private conversation with the French Ambassador, he declared that he did not understand why the marriage of the Queen and the Infanta should necessarily be solemnized simultaneously. any conversation he had with M. Bresson on the subject was entirely of a private and confidential character, never intended to be communicated to any one, much less in an official manner. But in no case whatever were any 66 overtures made by him on the subject of the Montpensier marriage. M. Guizot, then, was quite incorrect in making such a statement. The French Ambassador could not have forgotten the nature of the conversation, and would, no doubt, testify to the truth of what he (the Marquis de Miraflores) stated.

He then adverted to a passage in one of Lord Palmerston's notes to the Marquis of Normanby, to the effect that he (the Marquis de Miraflores) had gone on a mission in July last to Louis Philippe, with the object of inducing His Majesty to lay aside his objections to the Cobourg alliance. This statement of Lord Palmerston had been denied by M. Guizot, in a despatch to M. de Jarnac. But he found, in the note of the 8th of January last, addressed to Lord Normanby, this same statement repeated, notwithstanding M. Guizot's denial; and, further, that in